12:30pm Thursday 12th July 2012
By David Barnes
TWO Vietnamese men have been jailed for their involvement with a Blackburn cannabis farm that could have yielded nearly half a million pounds worth of the drug.
More than 1,100 plants were discovered when police raided an address in Queens Park Road in January.
They found six rooms and an attic space full of plants.
The court heard Thai Ho threatened a policeman with a ceramic shard and lunged towards him in a stabbing motion at the time.
He had already committed another cannabis factory type offence and been bailed by the UK Borders Agency because he was an illegal immigrant.
Ho, 24, and co-defendant, Thuong Nguyen, 19, both admitted being concerned in the production of cannabis.
Ho also pleaded guilty to affray and producing cannabis in Salford.
Judge Anthony Russell QC, the Recorder of Preston, said the Blackburn offence was one of the most serious to come before the court, in terms of drug quantity, for a long time.
The court heard that the 1,100 plants could have yielded a crop weighing over 23kgs with a street value of £440,000.
Mercedeh Jabbari, prosecuting, said police executed the drugs warrant on January 25.
She told the court: “The two defendants had squeezed through a small gap to make an escape. Officers then followed through the gap and made their way over the top of an adjoining property.”
When Ho was spotted he grabbed a four inch large ceramic shard and threatened one of the officers. He lunged towards him in a stabbing motion to his face. He also threw fibre glass insulation at the police to try and move them back.
The situation was so grave that one officer made a request for a negotiator with language skills to be sent to the scene.
Nguyen said he had been locked in and told what to do.
David Ryan, defending Ho, said he had had a limited role in what took place.
Similar mitigation was put forward for Nguyen.
Ho was jailed for two years and eight months, while Nguyen was given two years detention.
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